Chapter 3, Knight from the East (Part 2)
Howling arrow rain, muddy grass;
The fallen knight, the broken lance;
The dying cry, the discarded flag.
Under the hazy sky with misty drizzle, Lord Li Wei, who was covered in mud, was holding the discolored Zhao Na girl in his arms, sitting on the bumpy gun carriage running south with a gloomy expression, looking back at the northern sky. Lost in thought.
Lost! Just like in the original history, the French army was still defeated in the Battle of Crecy! And it failed miserably! Extremely stupid! How embarrassing!
In just one night, tens of thousands of soldiers lay dead in the wilderness. The French heavily armored knights who once dominated the European continent were almost wiped out on the battlefield!
Even though Levi had prepared for the worst from the beginning, he still greatly underestimated the weirdness of this battle, the terrifying power of the English archers, and the stupidity and brainlessness of the French pig teammates!
In the Battle of Crecy, the disadvantaged 10,000 British troops fought fairly, but the French army made almost all the low-level mistakes they could make!
——Before the battle broke out, King Edward III of England carefully selected the battlefield and set up positions on the high ground near Crecy Village. He also took the time to dig trenches and build fortifications so that he could be condescending and take advantage of his own bows and arrows to attack head-on. The French were forced to climb the mountain and attack from behind.
On the other hand, just two days after the main god system collapsed and the veterans were collectively forcibly ejected, 35,000 French troops finally arrived near the Crecy battlefield and fought with a "rural force" of 25,000 people. "Commune Volunteers" - although they actually They were just a group of serfs driven here by the lords, wearing rags and carrying pitchforks and sticks. They had no place on the battlefield at all. They could only wave flags and shout to show their strength. But at least on paper, the total strength of the French army was It has further expanded to as many as 60,000!
From the French point of view, even if the serfs at the back are not counted, the 12,000 heavy knights and 17,000 light cavalry as the main force are enough to defeat the opposing army composed of light infantry and archers. The main force, less than two thousand knights in total, was trampled to death.
In short, such a huge force made King Philip VI of France and a group of French dignitaries more and more complacent, thinking that they had a chance to win, so they did not conduct reconnaissance or formulate tactics at all, and they did not even figure out where the British army was. , and continued to advance along the avenue in a chaotic manner. Finally, at noon on August 26, a French Lord named Monny rushed to the King of France with a few knights. He reported that Edward III's British army had set up a position at Crecy and suggested that the King suspend his advance. They camped overnight to allow the rear troops to catch up, and then attacked again with the whole army the next morning.
As a "knight king" with a reputation for bravery, King Philip VI of France's military qualities were actually not bad, at least much better than those of China's Song and Ming emperors who stayed in the palace, so Being relatively sane at the moment, he readily accepted this correct suggestion and ordered the entire army to act according to the plan - if this order was truly implemented, then the British would be killed just by heaping heads. .
——Although the French knights are proud and conservative, they are not the down-and-out military families who are worse than beggars like those in the late Ming Dynasty. They are combat masters who have practiced killing skills since childhood. They are said to be able to poke a hole in the city wall! On the battlefield in the Cold Weapon Age, these heavy cavalry charging in with spears were almost invincible. Even the turtle formation of the ancient Roman legions could not stop their charge in the wilderness!
During the First Crusade, thousands of French knights, together with more than 10,000 infantrymen and servants, fought all the way from Constantinople to the Holy Land, Jerusalem, annihilating hundreds of thousands of soldiers along the way. The ** army left behind a illustrious military exploit that shocked the entire Western world!
The problem is that King Philip VI of France had only commanded small battles with a few thousand men before, and seriously underestimated the difficulty of commanding a large army of tens of thousands, not to mention that this seemingly huge French army was composed of hundreds of nobles from all over the world. The lords led their own troops and pieced them together. There was no clear affiliation between them, and no one obeyed anyone. In fact, the French army at this time had already fallen into a state of command failure.
Therefore, French historians recorded the street fighting scene on the eve of the battle in their works: "...(after receiving the French King's order) the people in front stopped, but those behind said that they must advance to be in line with the front row. They stopped at the parallel position; because the rear was advancing, the front row could not stop, and neither the king nor the marshals could make them stop, so although they were not ordered to do so, they continued to advance until they saw the enemy face to face. After seeing the British flag, the French army immediately fell into chaos and retreated. This frightened the troops behind and thought that a battle had occurred, so the road to Crecy was crowded with people. , although they were still three "leagues" (approximately three miles) away from the enemy, they drew their swords and shouted to kill, as if they were crazy, it is difficult to imagine the chaos unless they were present."
It can be seen that on a real battlefield, the more troops the better, even if the logistics can still support it, just commanding will make people crazy - fortunately, during this period, the British army stayed on the position , did not take the opportunity to attack, otherwise the Western version of the "Battle of Feishui" would really be staged.
In the end, after struggling until six o'clock in the evening, when the sun was almost setting (the days are long and the nights are short in midsummer, it gets dark later), the French army finally managed to form a combat formation. What's even more terrible is that on the eve of the battle between the two sides, the sky suddenly turned dark, and a heavy downpour came. Although the heavy rain came and went quickly, and the sun came out again a few minutes later, it had already made people in the wild The French army was soaked to the skin.
Regardless, the fight broke out. By convention, outpost warfare involves archery, and this happens to be the strength of the British. Since the "Norman Conquest" in the eleventh century, the British have used archery as their "national skill." According to regulations, all free people are allowed to shoot arrows. Always equipped with bows and arrows (this is why the image of Robin Hood is an archer - the British country militiamen are all archers), and the Welsh longbows are even more famous. The French relied on their experience in the Crusade era, but they worshiped heavily armored knights and did not pay attention to long-range attacks. They had to hire Italian Genoese as crossbowmen, and their shooting skills were far inferior to those of the British. Not to mention that they were standing in a depression while the British army stayed on the high ground, so they suffered a big loss in terms of range...
(I still can’t understand why the city of Genoa has become a banned word on the entire Internet. What hatred does that place have against my party and our country?)
So, as soon as the battle started, these Italian mercenaries gave full play to their cute nature, turned around and ran backwards, and even disrupted the French cavalry who were preparing to attack. The French King was so angry that he roared: "...Kill me Get rid of those gangsters because they block our attack route..."
As a result, under the double impact of the British arrow rain and the Italian rout, the first batch of French knights who attacked were in great disorder. In addition, the sky became dark and dark, and the flags could not be seen clearly. They all quickly dispersed or died. Or they ran away, and they didn't even see the enemy who killed them.
But no matter what, the French nobles were still worthy of their reputation as the strongest knights in Europe. They still fearlessly braved the rain of arrows and continued to persevere in launching charges against the British positions again and again. Even the King of France bravely led the team to fight. kill. They fought from dusk to midnight, launching fifteen assaults. Even though there were mountains of corpses on the battlefield, they still refused to retreat. In other words, the Battle of Crecy was actually a rare night battle in history. Being able to organize a cavalry group to charge in the dark is enough to prove how brave and high-quality the French knights are.
However, blind bravery could not bring victory. Since they attacked the British from the depressions and the battlefield was very muddy due to heavy rain, the impact speed of the French cavalry was greatly reduced by the terrain, so that they could not break through. British defense line. The chaos of fighting in the dark at night made it even more difficult for the knights to cooperate with each other. What's even more terrible is that throughout the entire Battle of Crecy, the French army had no specific battle plan. Even the King of France gave up command after the battle began and personally led the charge. Therefore, from the King of France to the lowest squire, every batch The French knights had only one concept in their minds, which was to approach the enemy and kill the enemy, so they were in chaos from beginning to end. Fundamentally, there is no question of tactical breakthrough. However, King Edward III of England always kept firm control of his troops. He calmly responded to the battle and prepared for the battle all night long, repelling the French attacks again and again.
——In later history books, Philip VI was recognized as "a good knight, a bad king." Not only did he fail to make the necessary pre-war preparations, he didn't even dispatch a reconnaissance force and ran headlong into the British defense line. In the subsequent battles, Philip VI just blindly used his military superiority to continuously attack the British army's front. Although it looked quite chivalrous, it had fatal consequences.
In the end, after fifteen consecutive failed charges, almost all the noble lords participating in the French army died or fled, resulting in the complete paralysis of the French army. King Philip VI of France was wounded in the head by an arrow and was forced to leave the army and flee the battlefield. He ran all the way to the city of Amiens. As for the remaining cavalry under his command, they completely lost their command after the defeat, collapsed on the spot, and fled to their homes based on instinct, running everywhere for a while.
At dawn the next day, heavy rain fell again on the battlefield of Crecy. The British army left their position and launched an attack on the French infantry who had lost their commander (all the knights were killed) and was in chaos, and easily defeated these guys. , thus achieving a comprehensive victory in the entire battle.
In this battle, because the captain had shattered the void and returned to the real world, the humble Lord Levi was not as dignified as him and could not speak in front of the King of France at all, and his pine cannons were regarded as siege weapons by the French. , no one thought of using it in the field.
Therefore, during the battle, Lord Levi could only stay in the temporary camp behind the battle line, watching as batch after batch of passionate French knights bravely marched forward to death, and died in the endless night under the arrows of Welsh longbows. Sharp arrows, or trampled by one's own people. After finally waiting until those arrogant knights were all shot, the British army began to counterattack. Levi was gearing up to give the British a taste of cannonballs, but a heavy rain extinguished the possibility of using firearms—— His pine cannon was not yet advanced enough to be used in heavy rain.
The surrounding troops who were shouting and running wildly, as well as the helmets of French nobles hanging on the British spears, further reduced the morale of the defenders.
In the end, in front of the incoming British army, the small army of Knights Hospitaller led by Levi was finally overwhelmed by fear. They abandoned the camp in the chaos, took several officers hostage, and turned their backs to the British bows and arrows. , fled southward in chaos - fortunately, the dead noble knights on the ground and their abandoned camps provided the British army with too much loot for plunder. The British army, which had been fighting fiercely all night, actually had little energy left to continue chasing... In short, Lord Levi managed to escape from the battlefield smoothly without suffering a more embarrassing fate.
——The first battle that the time travelers were originally full of confidence ended in an anticlimactic manner before they even had time to fire off a shot.
The wisdom and strength of a few people turned out to be so insignificant on the huge chessboard of the game between the country and the nation.
At the same time, as the last group of French troops retreated, King Edward III of England also ordered the troops to disband to collect the belongings of the dead and the tents abandoned by the French troops. Until then, the British army was surprised to find that among the French nobles who were killed, there were actually the King of Bohemia, the Duke of Lorraine, ten earls, and more than 1,500 nobles who came to help. Knights, and more than 10,000 French soldiers died in the battle. In comparison, the losses of the British army were very slight, with a total of only two knights, one squire, more than 40 infantrymen, and dozens of Welsh longbowmen.
——The brilliant victory at the Battle of Crécy had the greatest impact in European history, which truly transformed Britain from a remote island country into a military power. Since then, England's national prestige has risen to a level high enough to compete for European hegemony, and England's reputation has been resounding throughout Europe.
In the past, the victories of the Kingdom of England over the Welsh and Scots on the island of Great Britain were little noticed on the Continent. The invasion of France launched by previous British kings failed to win enough shocking honors for England, regardless of victory or defeat.
But the Battle of Crecy was an epochal turning point, not only for the French, but also for the British. France was knocked unconscious by it, but England was drunk by it - France was bloodily torn off the painting of a great power, broke the backbone of the Western European hegemon, and sank in disaster and destruction for a century; England saw France conquered and Germany overwhelmed, The glorious dawn of inheriting the mantle of the ancient Roman Empire and dominating the European continent... Just like the ugly duckling in the fairy tale transformed into a white swan, a remote island country located on the edge of the European continent, far away from the center of civilization, finally no longer belittles itself, but begins to own itself. The dream of a great nation!
Thus, just like the Japanese militarism that later conquered the Korean Peninsula and Northeast China, the England of the Plantagenet Dynasty began an even crazier continental strategy. Driven by the spirit of the great goal, the flames of the Hundred Years' War between England and France intensified.
However, for Lord Levi, who had just escaped from the battlefield of Crecy, the subsequent impact of all this has nothing to do with him.
The war belonging to Levi's Knights has been declared over before it really begins.
Now, his only goal is to return to the port of Marseille - the only place in the world that he can call "home".
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One month later, southern France, outside Marseille
When this group of exhausted travelers passed through the dense forest and arrived at the coastal plain, the western sky was already blood red. The sun is slowly descending from the horizon in an extremely unwilling and silent manner, slowly closing the golden-red curtains he has arranged on the clouds and the ground.
On the other side of the sky, faint starlight was climbing into the sky. Led by the pale crescent moon, they followed closely the pace of the sun, which although still occupied most of the sky, was about to retire, and couldn't wait to announce that night was coming.
The sound of the sea waves came from afar, the sea breeze with a salty smell blew against my face, and it seemed that I could hear the chirping of seagulls... At the end of the woods, wheat fields and pastures, somewhere there was a small island that thrust southward into the Mediterranean Sea. On the peninsula, a dusty fortress, or manor house surrounded by high walls, stood proudly in the twilight. A flag with an eight-pointed white cross on a red background representing the Knights Hospitaller was fluttering in the wind on the roof of the attic.
Seeing this familiar scene, Lord Levi couldn't help but rein in his horse, stopped his horse and stood there, letting out a long sigh.
"...are you home already? My dear?"
Zhao Na, who was drowsy along the way, seemed to feel the breath of the sea breeze and raised her head from Li Wei's arms. Along the way, due to the lack of horses, the two of them always shared a ride, and their relationship was also complicated. More and more intimate.
However, Levi did not answer the words of his girlfriend in his arms. He just looked back at his team - there were a total of thirty-five people left. Compared with before the expedition, their team had shrunk to one-fifth of its original size and was bulky. None of the pine cannons were left.
What is even more sad and lamentable is that after the six veterans suddenly left and returned to the real world on the eve of the Battle of Crecy, the remaining two companions from the modern world also passed away to heaven one after another, leaving only Li Wei and His girlfriend Zhao Na is still struggling in this strange Western world:
When the bald man was riding his horse to escape from the battlefield of Crecy, he accidentally fell off his horse and was immediately trampled into a pulp by several knights running wildly. He immediately suffered a bloody head and a sunken sternum. Li Wei and the others couldn't even save him in time.
The young man with the spiky head managed to escape all the way to Paris smoothly, but because he was caught in heavy rain on the way to escape, had to travel a long distance, and was weak, he fell ill with a high fever as soon as he entered the city. In the modern world, such ailments wouldn't matter at all. But in this tragic era, life is at stake - as the capital of France, Paris will certainly not be unable to find doctors, and Levi will certainly be able to afford the consultation fees. But the problem is that the doctors in medieval Europe are really unreliable. They can only do bloodletting. So after asking them to see the doctor a few times, Hedgehog's condition became more and more serious, and he even started to coma and talk nonsense. In the end, he died without even finishing his last prayer.
After burying his companion in a church cemetery in Paris, Lord Levi once again set out on his way back south to his base in Marseille. After the humiliating defeat of Crécy, King Philip VI of France fell into despair for many consecutive years. Ignore political affairs. The retreating soldiers and horses returned to their hometowns one after another without receiving royal orders and no place to collect supplies, and Li Wei was certainly no exception.
But the way home is not safe. The soldiers who were scattered, the knights who felt shameless after defeating their lord, and the Italian mercenary archers who lost their commissions to the King of France, are all in despair. He transformed into a bandit and robbed everywhere, creating a mess along the way.
As a result, Knight Levi did not encounter the British sword on the battlefield of Crecy. Instead, on the way back to Marseille, he encountered various French robber knights several times. Some of his opponents were those who had just fought under the French flag not long ago. The comrades who fought side by side...the pine cannons did not hit the British, but fired several times on the French. The reinforcements of the Knights Hospitaller he led further shrunk to more than thirty people.
But, no matter what, after all the tragedy, farce and tragedy, they finally returned home.
"...Yes, we are home, finally home!"
After a long silence, Li Wei finally spoke slowly and said to Zhao Na in his arms.
——Although he may never be able to go back to his home in another world, at least he still has a home of his own here. Thinking of this, a smile of relief broke out at the corner of Levi's mouth. He leaned over and kissed the beauty in his arms on the face. At the same time, he reached out and pointed to the manor in front of him, "...Look, my dear, Uncle Diderot." Bring someone out to greet us! ”